Aurora at last!

Just had to share…never seen it before in my life, in spite of chasing it around at midnight in the car some years…….tonight I watched the Aurora Borealis from my back door, listening to an owl hooting and eating a bowl of salad in my pyjamas! It was a bit faint, but green horizontal lines and a big vertical ray of red….just incredible and so spooky! Rachel and I both watched it for a good five minutes! and then it started to dissipate. :)))))) Oliveoil will be so excited as she knows I’ve always wanted to see it! :))))

Oh at last you have seen it, amazing, one of the wonders of the world. Lucky girls :O) Hopefully you will see it again soon. Try to get pictures next time so we can see it too. :O) Fancy all those years of waiting to see it and at last you have. Glad Rachel was there to see it too. Eerie but atmospheric, especially with the owl hooting too.

You certainly did the right thing moving into your dream home and now you have another experience to cross off the list, what comes next Karen?? , it must have been a wonderful sight for both of you.....

lucky you! saw on BBC news site that it reached South Wales and Norfolk, but there's nothing on local radio, so maybe it skipped Shropshire, or it was cloudy. You can bet I'll be keeping a lookout tonight, even though national news said it might be a one-off

I had wanted to go to north Scotland to have a go at seeing it - Iceland's a bit far for a first solo trip, I feel!

It s Fran, but you'd have a better chance. The man on the BBC this morning was saying he'd never seen it before either and he's a professional astronomer! He went to Iceland to see it but was thwarted by cloud cover. It's not easy to find it, even though it's apparently there all the time if you go far enough north and find clear skies! I think Trondheim is your best bet! And while you're there you could check out their botanic Gardens! but wrap up warm! ;)) x

I rented a DVD from Amazon a while ago, about Joanna Lumley's search for the Aurora. She went to Trondheim too, staying at the Ice Hotel. not sure I'd fancy having to put on a fur suit before going to bed! but, sigh, one day ...

Of course, if it's faint to you, it'd probably be near-invisble to me - I'd been thinking of the brilliant displays that make such awesome pics and videos.

lol, for a moment I thought you meant the actual Aurora! and I was thinking, "isn't technology wonderful", and then I realised waht you really meant. Of course, those pics were taken very far north, and maybe they got luckly. maybe

You are going to come outdoors one evening and we are all going to be sitting there!
Despite working outdoors all night last night, we didn't see a thing down here. I've just heard on the news it was seen in Jersey!

Wow - that's terrific Karen. I'm happy for you! There are masses of amazing pics on the BBC website today - clear last night, so the 'Lights' were seen as far south as Gloucestershire. A friend went on a cruise up the fjords 2 weeks ago to see them, and they looked black and white to the naked eye, but green in the photos: weird.

So fantastic Karen you lucky lady, we went to Norway last March and we saw them too, although you got yours for free Karen Lol. Wonderful. I must say you need a jolly fine camera to capture them and I mean a very good one, ours came out far too dark so I have the memory firmly in my mind.

The weather forecast for the evening after the aurora said it would be very cold overnight, so I thought, must mean clear skies, and who knows? So I kept nipping out to check, but no, it must hae been a one-shot deal. sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

They're supposed to have been particularly good this year - BBC report that they've even been seen in Jersey! The disadvantage of being in an urban setting is that the only glow we get in the night sky is from the street lights.

Would love to see them for real - will have to plan a Scottish trip one year for this rather than the rugby or rock gigs.

The sun works in 11-year cycles - at the max, theres' lots of sunspots, and more aurara displays.

we're in a solar max period - not sure if we're moving into it or out of it, but either way there should be a few good years

I've checked up on "aurora tours" - there's a Scandinavian cruise company that offers these, but as the voyage includes 10 ports in 3 days, not sure how much time there'd be for sky-watching. There's also a company in Iceland that also has tours across south-western Iceland, which takes my fancy, but - all the cold-weather gear I'd have to buy!

Fran - a friend went on a Hurtigruten cruise up the Norwegian fjords recently, for 5 days. There was plenty of time for sky-watching: if they weren't up on deck at a good time, a buzzer sounded in their cabin!